Comments for Player-2http://www.player-2.nl
Portfolio for Arjen de Jong, freelance game designer and writer.Mon, 24 Feb 2014 21:55:19 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.26Comment on Design characters, not motives (part 1) by » Perpetual Musings Player-2http://www.player-2.nl/?p=537#comment-229
Mon, 24 Feb 2014 21:55:19 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?p=537#comment-229[...] to tell him ‘Y’. I’ve written about this before with regard to character design (part 1, part 2). This is a very effective method when designing flow in a game but if you don’t make [...]
]]>Comment on Playful Narrative by » Perpetual Musings Player-2http://www.player-2.nl/?page_id=915#comment-228
Mon, 24 Feb 2014 20:24:21 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?page_id=915#comment-228[...] Playful Narrative [...]
]]>Comment on Contact by » Credibility matters Player-2http://www.player-2.nl/?page_id=32#comment-98
Sun, 05 Jan 2014 15:59:59 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?page_id=32#comment-98[...] Contact [...]
]]>Comment on Contact by » Scrum Poker Player-2http://www.player-2.nl/?page_id=32#comment-70
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 19:51:39 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?page_id=32#comment-70[...] Contact [...]
]]>Comment on The interactive story misconception by Control Gamelab #8 – Vines | Zo-iihttp://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-12
Thu, 09 May 2013 17:13:38 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-12[...] Inspired by the evening and by a post on Gamasutra, Arjen de Jong decided to finally write that blogpost on ‘the interactive story misconception‘. [...]
]]>Comment on The interactive story misconception by Royhttp://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-11
Thu, 09 May 2013 16:02:51 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-11That particular example can be quite fun yes. But I always hate the kind of people who endlessly complain when they find out that games aren’t these magical things that keep on generating endless story content. :P Its because a branching narrative can seem really complex the first playthrough that you can’t comprehend it thus have to call it “magic”. Though when some people find out how the system works then all of a sudden they say the game is “bad”. To those people I like to say: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthus C. Clarke

So if you want to keep the magic, don’t try to comprehend the system.

]]>Comment on The interactive story misconception by Arjenhttp://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-10
Thu, 09 May 2013 15:31:54 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-10Yes often finding the system behind it instead of seeing ‘the magic’ can ruin an experience.

However I don’t feel like this is always the case. If it isn’t a simple choice of pick ‘A’ or ‘B’ but more a choice of which part of the story you as a player explore, replays tend to be quite enjoyable in my experience. A good personal example would be the relationships in Fire Emblem, where a replay with different characters would give me not only a different gameplay experience (different units) but also new dialogue and characters to explore, in a main story that remains roughly the same.

]]>Comment on The interactive story misconception by Royhttp://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-8
Thu, 09 May 2013 15:16:36 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-8Game design is make-belief if you ask me. Not everything has to be real (or can be for that matter) for the user to feel as if it is. This is also why I don’t believe in “replayability”. Most games should not be replayed to see all the other options, because when you do you’ll ultimately ruin your initial playthrough. Unless you understand that even in game design the possibilities aren’t endless and want to see what’s behind the magic of the system, only then I’d recommend a second let alone third playthrough.

To many gamers are disappointing about the way an interactive multi-linear story works when they play it too many times. They effectively ruin the game for themselves as do designers who market the game as endlessly replayable.

]]>Comment on The interactive story misconception by Arjenhttp://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-7
Thu, 09 May 2013 15:09:30 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-7To comment on your last point, that is absolutely true. To a wider extend, is a totally responsive and interactive (player controlled) story without the player realizing this different than a non interactive story that feels like it is interactive? It feels like it isn’t, considering player experience at least.
]]>Comment on The interactive story misconception by Royhttp://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-6
Thu, 09 May 2013 15:03:12 +0000http://www.player-2.nl/?p=357#comment-6Personally I never understood why game stories “must” be interactive at all to be fun… There are a thousand ways to tell a great story with a game whether they are interactive or not isn’t really the point. I didn’t find Braid’s story to be very interactive but it was still brilliant, while Mass Effect’s story felt very interactive and was equally well done.

What does matter though is that adding consequences to the decisions of an audience is something games often do as apposed to movies or books. So making a narrative interactive can give an extra dimension to how we experience that story. It opens up an entirely new field of research, which I personally believe to be a nice addition. This doesn’t negate the fact that non-interactive stories can be great too though.

I always found defining what media can and can’t be to be extremely useless. Some day someone will prove you wrong anyway and in the end art only evolves when people start thinking outside of the box instead of inside.

I also wanted to know one thing. What makes a story interactive? Is a multi-linear story always interactive and a linear story always non-interactive? There are several multi-linear stories that are totally random and do not react on player choice but on a variable number in the code. That’s not really interactive right? While there are many linear narratives that do let you interact with that particular story but do not let the player influence its entire outcome. So yeah really difficult question and maybe only answerable on a case by case basis.